My Wishlist

Airbrushed Alibis

Hyperbubble return with 12 new synth-driven techinicolor glamtronic bubblewave anthems about supermodels, cyborgs, and sexy surveillance. A cartoon circus ride from beginning to end, Airbrushed Alibis is a new synthpop classic.

Genre: Electronic: Synthpop

Release Date: 2007

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ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

Great news! HYPERBUBBLE are back with twelve more blasts from their pink & blue pop gun! On their latest release, "Airbrushed Alibis", futurewave action figures Jess & Jeff deliver all new tales of supermodels, cyborgs, and sexy surveillance.

Hyperbubble fill their musical test tube with a mixture of both influence and invention. Jess has a voice reminiscent of Blondie,Ladytron, and Young Marble Giants, while Jeff's bouncy synth riffs will appeal to fans of Yello, Devo, and Giorgio. Imagewise, the pair bare a strong resemblance to Hasbro cartoon rockers Jem & The Holograms, as well as another synth-weilding duo from the 70's: The Captain & Tennille.

Yet, while there is the occasional nod to the past, Hyperbubble reject the term "retro", utilizing their stacks of synthesizers and sequencers to give "Airbrushed Alibis" a fresh, 21st Century sound. Digital samples are also employed, ranging from electronic bird feeders, to microwave ovens, to Jeff's favorite percussive device, his Bee Gees lunchbox.

The harder, faster, and fuller-sounding follow up to the duo's 2004 debut, "Airbrushed Alibis" will transport your mind to the dark side of the bubble on “Non-Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal“(with guest vocalists from GirlsRiseWihHeat, Polarized Mind, Femme Fatality, Mission Giant, and Moog Mafia, journey to the center of your spine with "Nervous System", then peek into the future with "I'm in Love with My Clone". Each new song is an invitation to switch on, plug in, and pop out!

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Having demonstrated on their debut that they know how to make peppy synth pop par excellence, Jess and Jeff DeCuir keep at it with their second effort, a dozen delights as dayglo-entertaining as the album artwork. Unlike so much of the almost too-apologetic neo-keyboard-new-wave, the DeCuirs actually sound like they want to hit a dance floor, and one overseen by the self-knowing wryness of Devo at that. So opening "Synesthesia" is a full-on celebration of their artistic approach, detailing all the pieces of equipment needed to hit the beats and bleeps in traded-off then shared vocals, all with the kind of weird and wonderful nagging synth lines that make listeners of a certain age want to hit the arcade to play Pac-Man or Defender right this second. (The concluding unlisted "Bonus Track" does much the same thing with the very concept of such a song.) Jess's delivery is again the kind of witty ice-cool warmth that could almost be a solo cyborg Shangri-Las, while the two create perfectly in sync arrangements of tense and brisk such as "Hyperdome" and the slow-crawling ballad that's the title track. It's no surprise that Jeff in particular has such a sharp eye for sheer froth given his roots in an act like Pink Filth, and song titles like "Rollerboogie Babydoll" and the ultimate mouthful of "Non-Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal" further demonstrate it. (Meanwhile there's even a subtle Queen nod in the title of "I'm In Love With My Clone.") Perhaps the cherry on the sundae is a classic disaffected anthem-of-youth, "Indoor Kidz," simultaneously a tribute to any number of generations chilling in front of some sort of screen (the music may be early eighties, but the mentions of laptops are newer and the quote from the Who rather earlier) and straight-up herky-jerky dance delight.

- Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Retro-techno-bubblegum pop for robots and the kids who love them! It's happy feel-so-good-lucky joyousness that loves drum machines and microkorgs, like The B-52's doing New Order Devo on a minimalist scale. It's like robot love machines playing 80's wave to seduce the kids until everyone is dancing in binary.

There are nifty pop blips and rock beeps, and cuteness abounds in a robotic way. It's like The Cars crashing into The Faint and taking them back in time to give them happy pills. Or Freezepop jamming on a version of M's "Pop Muzik" with Ladytron in the back seat of a spaceship, but there's only two of them. It's like that Pulsars song about the Silicon Teens, but it's about Hyperbubbles instead.

The Humans are dead.

-Marcel Feldmar, Big Takeover magazine

With a groove that splits the difference between New Traditionalists-era Devo and early Berlin, Airbrushed Alibis is inspired silliness and a charming demonstration of how to commit to a concept. The formula works because Jeff and Jess genuinely love their bubblegum kitsch fantasy, and also because they have a reliable feel for pop hooks, best displayed on "Commuter" ( a celebration of cutting-edge transportation) and "Rollerboogie Babydoll" (Donna Summer meets Isaac Asimov). A cartoonish, Hanna-Barbera view of the future informed by 1960s visions of the 21st century as an era of flying cars and robotic romance: In Hyperbubble's world, science is sexy.

-Gilbert Garcia, Current magazine

Boy and girl - Jess and Jeff lay down some fine synth-pop tunes with great aplomb and are bound to strike a chord with any lover of Freezepop, Ladytron, et al.

-Keytars and Violins

Hyprbubble make music with an undeniable beat. Jess has an excellent power-pop voice that brings to mind Blondie. Synthesizers and drum machines provide the music, the noise and the sound effects. Hyperbubble's not-so-secret weapon is humor. Instead of playing the chill of technology to the hilt, Hyperbubble heats it up with songs such as "Rollerboogie Babydoll" and "I'm In Love With My Clone". Those songs could warm the cockles of a robot's circuit board.

-Jim Beal Jr, Weekender magazine

Jess and Jeff have been whiling away the last few years crafting honey crusted slices of sumptuous synth pop that isn’t afraid to wear its Buggles badges on its sleeve. Hyperbubble are very much children of the first wave of electro pop. Reference markers such as New Musik, the Normal and Thomas Dolby are pretty much in evidence, yet their knack for calibrating melodically astute machine grooves does hint at a Tosca fan in their midst. Sample the delights of the impossibly infectious buzzcore ‘Nervous System’( Client meets Vince Clark era Depeche Mode ) ...neat or what?

On its first album, the duo known as Hyperbubble went ahead and proved that the breakneck pace of punk could be applied to straight-up synthpop. In the process, Jess and Jeff (who comprise Hyperbubble) crafted an addictive little sugarshot that stuck in your head and never, ever threatened to be taken seriously. Now they’re back, with another pile of tracks known collectively as Airbrushed Alibis, complete with cover art featuring neon rainbows and waterguns. Clearly, not much has changed. The little that has changed, however, is for the better—rather than simply taking ‘80s cheesepop and speeding it up to great effect, the duo has opted for an occasional foray into more sinister territory. Tracks like “Reversible” and the fantastic title track opt for the sparse percussion and synth work of Front 242, while the lyrics drop the ironic style of the more upbeat (read: silly) tracks. Even so, it’s obvious that not too much of a shift has taken place when things like “Rollerboogie Babydoll” ("It’s so exciting I like when we’re skating away! / There’s no escaping the mating call the DJ plays!") and the delightfully meta “Bonus Track” are the norm. Still, when the end result is as fun as this, who really needs change anyway?

Hyperbubble are from Texas and consist of Avengers-loving Jess (vocals, keyboards and bionics) and Jeff (sequencers, synthesisers and vocals), the latter owning up to a Bee Gees lunchbox as most prized possession. Hyperbubble live in a world where you make music to have fun and don’t ever take yourself too seriously. That said, the music is not just slung together. It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into the melodies, the rhythm and the spot sound effects utilised during each track.

The album kicks off with the bouncy Synesthesia, filled with Jess’s sultry vocals, whooshes and echoed hand claps before Jeff’s monotone vocals let us in on the secret: “Casio Synthetic Strings, 707 drum machine, a D4, a mixing board, a microphone, a MicroKorg”. 2 ½ minutes of synth perfection. And then we’re off again.

The vast majority of tracks on this album are quite short, lasting anywhere between just under a minute up to 3 ½ minutes. This means that no tracks really hang around long enough for you to get bored of them, in and out as quickly as possible....

...There’s a little Jean Michel Jarre cameo at the start of Polyurethane, which may seem a little odd but also fits in quite well. I swear that Reversible was considering breaking into the theme from Top Gun as well at one point before deciding better of it. The band’s influences are clearly early 80’s with a modern twist, but they don’t go for the icy cold harshness of the now departed electroclash style. Hyperbubble are about feeling warm and fuzzy inside, harking back to the likes of Buggles in particular (for those who know Living In The Plastic Age album rather than just the classic singles from it). Lyrically the duo serve up a mix of futuristic messages along with bubblegum teen life, from the Dilbert-esque Commuter to disco rollerskating tribute Rollerboogie Babydoll.

The final nice touch is the bonus track called , wait for it, Bonus Track. Can’t recall anyone else pulling this trick before and actually it again works well. I’m sure Hyperbubble are a blast live, but I’ll make do with the album seeing as they’re on a different continent and several light years ahead of me. I have to say that some may well dismiss this album as forth or cheese, but that is really not giving it a chance. Sometimes you just have to lighten up and just go with the flow. There’s time for angst later, have some fun for a while. This album has been on repeat for the last three weeks (which is why this review is a little late, trying to work out what I was going to say but too busy just having a blast…).

Hyperbubble's Airbrushed Alibis is one of my all-time favorite new wavey releases of 2007. I have it on good authority that some of these songs have over 100 layers to them, and you can hear tons of nifty sonic surprises buried in the mix in tracks like "Nervous System" and "I'm In Love With My Clone".

This is headphone music all the way, but if you do listen with conventional speakers, make sure to turn up the volume so you can properly feel that massive bass synth pulse coming through you on "Nervous System" and "Synesthesia". Very nice stuff indeed, New Wave goodness of the highest order.

I can think of few other albums in this genre that stayed in my player as long over the summer. None, in fact. You can not go wrong with Hyperbubble as a Blondie fan, Devo lover, Ladytron junkie, or even Dee-Lite groove addict. I can't wait to hear what comes next.

Art and commerce collide with punk-pop, and everyone loves the sonic debris. This is an album of twelve tracks, twelve very clever tracks. The synthesis is 2NU, Pet Shop Boys, Jonathan Richman, Shampoo, Brian Eno (they crib from 'Before & After Science' in a rather wonderful way) Gary Numan and Tomorrow's World. This is a seamless slide through time as represented by sound. Kid's pop, kitsch pop, real pop, synth pop, death drone, it doesn't matter - You want modern music? 'Airbrushed Alibis' captures your attention then does illegal things to it.

Having loved their first CD, SOL!D POP, I was eager to hear what Hyperbubble would come up with the second time around. I got everything I had hoped for and more. Jeff still spits out the hot new wave licks on his synthesizers, and Jessica's multitracked pop vox are sweeter than ever. There are still familiar traces of 80s favorites like Blondie, Berlin, Missing Persons, yet there are also moments where Jess and Jeff are mixing and matching and inventing music like I've never quite heard before.

The song "Synesthesia" has the CD blasting off in pure powerpop style. The energy level is kept high until later in the CD, where Hyperbubble start to explore newer, darker territory with songs like "Non Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal", and the ultimate in vanity, "I'm in Love with my Clone".

Speaking of clones, those expecting Airbrushed Alibis to be a clone of their first album are in for quite a few suprises: The sound is bigger, the arrangements more intricate and the lyrics more biting. Still, songs like "Teen Dream", and the anthemic "Indoor Kidz" will satisfy die hard happy-pop devotees of SOL!D POP, and then some.

Those who stick around past the listed songs will be rewarded with the ultimate bonus track entitled...yes..."Bonus Track". It's an absolutely hilarious dedication to those psuedo - freebies every CD buyer hopes and prays for.

Hyperbubble invite their listeners on a supersonic rollercoaster of technocolor fun, and I for one am enjoying the ride.

With a groove that splits the difference between New Traditionalists-era Devo and early Berlin, Airbrushed Alibis is inspired silliness and a charming demonstration of how to commit to a concept.

The formula works because Jeff and Jess genuinely love their bubblegum kitsch fantasy, and also because they have a reliable feel for pop hooks, best displayed on "Commuter" ( a celebration of cutting-edge transportation) and "Rollerboogie Babydoll" (Donna Summer meets Isaac Asimov).

A cartoonish, Hanna-Barbera view of the future informed by 1960s visions of the 21st century as an era of flying cars and robotic romance: In Hyperbubble's world, science is sexy.

Hyperbubble's sonic approach is what really brings back the fun in electronic music. "Airbrushed Alibis" is one of those albums that can pretty much make your day if you give it a chance. You can choose to take it seriously or just drop your music defenses down for a while and just enjoy it for what it is. Upbeat and lighthearted, Hyperbubble manage to bring some pop sensibility into their electronic machinescapes without rendering the final result blatantly mainstream, and it's just so much in-your-face you can't really avoid it.
"Airbrushed Alibis" kicks off with "Synesthesia", a well produced song that'll immediately take you off your feet. Most of the songs in "Airbrushed Alibis" are quite short but nonetheless quite complete, they just deliver what they have to while keeping it smart and simple. Next, there's the ironic, almost sadistic and more wavey "Nervous System", which paves way for "Hyperdome", which is sort of a bridge to what is to come next. And what comes next, may you ask? Well definitely much more intelligent electro powerpop, and "Indoor Kidz" makes a good run for it, keeping it almost innocent and yet somewhat sexy. "Rollerboogie Babydoll" is probably going to drag you along into madness with its sharp lyrics and crazy electronics, which can only get crazier when you get to tracks such as "commuter", which is very fast-paced and almost underlines the stress of actually commuting, wherever to, right before unexpectedly dropping you off at "Non-Biodegradable Waste Disposal" which is much more of a moody and almost dark song that will get you ready to slow down to the title track, "Airbrushed Alibis" and (almost) lay you down to peace with the soothing last track on the album, "Teen Dream". Oh, wait, let's more. "Synesthesia" makes a cameo appearance later again on track 13 and if it wasn't quite what you wanted, there it is! A bonus track, curiously titled "Bonus Track" which actually now gives you EXACTLY what you were looking for, oh yes, and absolutely free. Brilliant!
"Airbrushed Alibis" makes it out as a pretty good collection of songs which will undoubtably get you tuned on. Yes, like a switch, get it?

Having demonstrated on their debut that they know how to make peppy synth pop par excellence, Jess and Jeff DeCuir keep at it with their second effort, a dozen delights as dayglo-entertaining as the album artwork. Unlike so much of the almost too-apologetic neo-keyboard-new-wave, the DeCuirs actually sound like they want to hit a dance floor, and one overseen by the self-knowing wryness of Devo at that. So opening "Synesthesia" is a full-on celebration of their artistic approach, detailing all the pieces of equipment needed to hit the beats and bleeps in traded-off then shared vocals, all with the kind of weird and wonderful nagging synth lines that make listeners of a certain age want to hit the arcade to play Pac-Man or Defender right this second. (The concluding unlisted "Bonus Track" does much the same thing with the very concept of such a song.) Jess's delivery is again the kind of witty ice-cool warmth that could almost be a solo cyborg Shangri-Las, while the two create perfectly in sync arrangements of tense and brisk such as "Hyperdome" and the slow-crawling ballad that's the title track. It's no surprise that Jeff in particular has such a sharp eye for sheer froth given his roots in an act like Pink Filth, and song titles like "Rollerboogie Babydoll" and the ultimate mouthful of "Non-Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal" further demonstrate it. (Meanwhile there's even a subtle Queen nod in the title of "I'm In Love With My Clone.") Perhaps the cherry on the sundae is a classic disaffected anthem-of-youth, "Indoor Kidz," simultaneously a tribute to any number of generations chilling in front of some sort of screen (the music may be early eighties, but the mentions of laptops are newer and the quote from the Who rather earlier) and straight-up herky-jerky dance delight.

Hyprbubble make music with an undeniable beat. Jess has an excellent power-pop voice that brings to mind Blondie. Synthesizers and drum machines provide the music, the noise and the sound effects.

Hyperbubble's not-so-secret weapon is humor. Instead of playing the chill of technology to the hilt, Hyperbubble heats it up with songs such as "Rollerboogie Babydoll" and "I'm In Love With My Clone". Those songs could warm the cockles of a robot's circuit board.